


New Beginnings

by lufluf



Category: Supergirl (Comics), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angry Kara/Supergirl, Family, Friendship, Kara is 17 when she lands on earth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-06-17 04:21:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15453231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lufluf/pseuds/lufluf
Summary: Kara Zor-El is seventeen years old when her planet explodes. When she arrives on Earth 24 years later she needs to learn how to live on a different planet, needs to adapt to a different culture, all the while trying to handle the loss of her family and planet.This is the story of a young woman who has suffered the greatest loss imaginable, but has been granted a second chance on finding her place in the world amongst friends and, maybe, a new family. Oh, and powers. She suddenly has the prowess to protect the important people in her life. So, imagine what she will do to the enemies that threaten to ruin the ones she loves. Kara has already had to watch everyone she loves die once  without being able to do anything about. Now that she can help, she won't stop at anything to protect them.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody!  
> This is my first Supergirl fanfic, so I imagine the characters will be slightly OC. Well, they were supposed to be OC anyway, because I'm kind of mixing the comics, the TV show and my own imagination to create a slightly different kind of world. It would be strange if all characters (especially Kara) would still be the same. I hope none of you will be terribly upset to see a darker, angrier version of Supergirl, instead of the bubbly puppy most of us are used to. 
> 
> Please leave comments (constructive feedback is always appreciated) or kudos, if you like. And also, maybe, tell me if you want me to continue with this story or not.
> 
> Enjoy!

I was seventeen years old when my planet exploded and me and my baby cousin became the last of our kind. Before I continue with what comes after the explosion, I’ll explain what my life was like when all was still good in my world where all my friends and family lived. I’ll tell you all about the happiness of my youth and the greatness of the people in my life, so you will have a better understanding of what I lost. Only that way you will understand the rage and pain and desperation I still feel every day. And I hope I will explain my behavior those first few years afterwards.

  
My name is Kara Zor-El, daughter of Alura and Zor-El, the scion of the respected and noble house of El. The house of El was a prominent part of the Science Guild. My entire younger life therefore considered of learning about and appreciating the wonders of science. I loved every minute of my education, which sometimes alienated me from the other students, who were sometimes less inclined to study. There was only one subject I did not excel at; physical education. Don’t misunderstand, I did not mind strengthening my body, I just wasn’t good at the martial arts classes. I also truly never imagined myself needing it; there wasn’t any crime in Argo City – my childhood home – to warrant these particular skills. Furthermore, we had the Army and Police Guilds to protect us from any possible attacks. As a member of the Science Guild I felt like it wasn’t my top priority. Of course, I still kept myself in shape. Not only did I not want to fail the class, but having a healthy and fit body does wonders to the mind.

  
The only time I was happy to have learned how to fight – not well, mind you – was when my aunt, Astra, visited and sked to show me any new moves I had learned since the last time she had seen me. Aunt Astra only ever asked me about the martial art classes and never about anything related to science. She did not have the heart for science, even if she was smart enough to understand it all. Still, a great mind without passion for the subject will refuse to acknowledge it. Aunt Astra was my mother’s identical twin, meaning she wasn’t part of both the House of El as well as the Science Guild. Fortunately for her she could enter the Army through her marriage with my uncle Fuckface.

  
Astra used to visit me frequently when I was a young girl, even if she seemed to dislike my mother more and more over the course of a decade, but it never stopped her from visiting me. She didn’t have children of her own, so she regarded me as her own. I still do not understand why, but when I turned twelve I apparently stopped being important enough for her to come back once in a while. I probably should have seen it coming. The year prior, my mom and Astra only ever seemed to be fighting with each other. Every fight more intense than the last until they just stopped speaking to each other. I believe my mom forbade her sister from visiting me, but Astra had never really listened to her sister and still visited me in secret as much as possible. In the end, though, I think it took to much effort for her to continue visiting me, so she stopped. I understand, of course, that she couldn’t be there for me like she used to be. I also understand that she couldn’t always put her life on hold and wait for the right moment to approach me. I also know that there would be severe repercussions if she were to be caught sneaking into our home. But what I don’t get is how she could so easily remove me from her life. No goodbye, no nothing. For the five years that Krypton would still exist. I experienced what it felt like to lose someone important for the first time when I was twelve. Since then I have lost more people than anyone should ever have to.

  
Once I turned fourteen I began to notice the critical state of Krypton. I had known, of course, that the planet wasn’t as overflowing with nature and life as it once did long ago. Of course I knew, it was impossible not to notice. But still, I had never known the planet to be anything other than a dessert devoid of most life forms. I had never even seen birds until I first set foot on Earth. What I didn’t know – and most people certainly weren’t aware of – was that we had drained the planet of its natural resource till the point of unsustainability. The first sign of the end were the earthquakes. The first one was only a slight tremor that lasted less than a minute. Still, in a world known for its inner stability, an earthquake was a rare occurrence. Unprecedented, really. It was no wonder that people were concerned. I still remember my parents trying to calm the citizens – my father as the head of the Science Guild and my mother as a well-known member of the High Council of Argon – in order to avoid any panic. They, too, tried to calm me down, told me it wasn’t anything serious. I believed them, the first time, but when the earthquakes became regular occurrences I knew something big was going to happen. I didn’t realize the severity of the situation of course. I thought Krypton was going to be similar to the planets that suffer from volcanic eruptions, like Earth. I never could have imagined that Krypton would seize to exist in the most violent way possible. But it did, and I lost everything and everyone I had ever known and loved.

  
When I turned sixteen I had practically finished my education. I had to only wait for my eighteenth birthday – the day one becomes a fully acknowledged member of the working class – to officially start working in the labs. I still had to go to school; there were certain things that I still had to learn, like politics and history and martial arts, but I knew all about the sciences. That’s why my father took me into his own private laboratory and asked me to work alongside him on one of his many projects; a spaceship that could safely hold one person. We already had many spaceships, naturally. Krypton was very advanced so the technology wasn’t anything new. We just didn’t have a spaceship of that size yet. The difficulty lay in the small size of the motors, while they still needed to have enough power to work properly. I spent many a weekend with my father, side to side, as equals. I had always adored my father and we were always close, but these few months strengthened our bond. I had known him as a child, now I got to know him as an adult as well. He, too, seemed to appreciate our time together. Maybe even more so than me. He treasured every moment. Probably because he knew how our story together was going to end soon. I am forever grateful to have so many beautiful memories of him; the smile he wore proudly on his face whenever one of my suggestions proved to be fruitful, his loud laughter as me or him messed up, the love he showed me and my mother whenever she paid us a visit.

  
I remember, fondly, how our little family spent that last year bonding and getting closer and closer. My father sometimes took us to the glass desert to have a picnic there. My mom arranged for us to have front row seats to all our favorite shows. I have never been happier than when I was sixteen. Surrounded by all the people I loved and knowing that everyone I loved were happy and alive, I truly felt at peace. I still wish every day to go back to that time, despite the new family I have found here on Earth. I just wish to go back to a time where I didn’t feel partially dead inside too.

  
Another amazing thing that happened that year was the birth of my cousin, Kal-El. My uncle Jor-El, brother of my father, was beyond thrilled. He and his wife celebrated the birth of their son with the entire Science Guild and both their respective houses. During the celebration of a newborn it is usual in Kryptonian tradition to announce a godmother or father. Imagine my surprise when it wasn’t my father they chose, but me. I had to step forward, in front of our entire families, to fulfill the traditional ceremony that would bind me to Kal-El forever. As I looked at the faces of my parents and aunt and uncle I saw a profound sadness that scared me senseless.

  
The months afterwards I kept asking the adults what was going to happen, why they were so nervous, so desperate, to finish the spaceships. I had started begging during the final weeks, but they only looked at me with love in their eyes and told me not to worry, that I would be fine. They changed the subject whenever I asked if they, too, would be fine. And I worried. I worried when I woke up, I worried when I studied, I worried when I laughed and danced and joked. I worried when the earthquakes got so violent that entire cities crumbled and the planet made refugees of its own people. I worried when I carried Kal-El in my arms and cuddled him so he would stop crying.  
The last day on Krypton is probably the most painful memory I will forever carry with me. I woke up when the entire building shook and pieces of my bedroom ceiling crumbled. I fled my room and went in search of my parents. I found them in the laboratory with my dad and uncle working on the spaceships and my mother talking to my aunt, who carried Kal-El in her arms, in hushed tones.

  
“What is happening to Krypton?” I whispered in the silence that had fallen over the room. I looked desperately at my father. He stepped forward and took me in his arms. His embrace was long and loving and painful.

  
“Don’t you worry, Kara. It will be over soon.” I started crying when his voice broke. I felt the sobs raking his body and we both wept. He, because he knew, and I, because I understood. I then went to my mother, who held me for the remained of the time. The men put the finishing touches on the spaceship, while the women explained to me the fate of Krypton and the importance of the ships.

  
To this day I still do not know if I am grateful for the chance they gave me at life, or if I resent them that they didn’t let me perish with them. They told me I needed to go to Earth, a planet where Kal-El and I would be invincible because of their Yellow Sun – and protect my baby cousin. I didn’t understand why I had to go, why none of them would go, why they had to send me away, why I would have to suffer the loss of our entire culture and people on my own. It might not surprise you when I say that I refused to go. It might also not surprise you that I hugged my parents when the earthquakes intensified and shook the planet to its core. It didn’t even really surprise me when I woke up disoriented inside op the bigger spaceship and looked at the loving faces of my parents as they said their final farewells to me and each other. It didn’t surprise anybody that I cried out in agony when my parents launched my pod and shot me off into space where I saw my planet go up in a fiery explosion.

  
Have you ever wondered what a dying planet sounds like in its final moments? It’s nothing as grand as your imagination can come up with. For in reality, it is a completely silent affair except for the desperate cries of a grieving girl.

  
I cried myself to sleep for many weeks afterwards. The only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that I was still needed in this life, that I still had a purpose. Kal-El would need me when we landed on Earth, wherever that was supposed to be. According to the location device that I myself build into the spaceship’s interface, it would take six weeks of travel to get from Krypton to Earth if the motors work on full capacity. To take my mind of the mind numbing and soul crushing emptiness that threatens to pull me into the void of insanity that is grief, I regularly checked if we were still on route. I looked out of my window and saw Kal-El’s pod flying smoothly in front of mine. It hurt to think the baby had to spent so many weeks on his own, with no mother left to care for him when he cried. I just hoped our parents had figured out how to keep him alive long enough for him to reach Earth.

  
The journey went well for the first four and a half weeks, but I had known something bad was bound to happen from the very moment I saw rubbles of Krypton being blown in the direction of our pods. While our pods went fast, I knew the rubble was faster and would eventually catch up to us. And I was right when on the 33rd day a large piece of rock, easily twice the size of my ship, slightly knocked into the side of my pod. It wasn’t a disastrous collision, fortunately. Our speed difference was less than a few miles, but it still managed to knock my pod of its preset path and farther and farther away from its final destination. I desperately tried to steer the pod back on its original course, but the steering panel had gotten too damaged. Within hours I couldn’t make out Kal-El’s pod from the stars. I had lost the last of my family.

  
I cannot possibly describe the way it feels to be locked up in a small space with almost no room to move and to realize you will probably die in there, lost in the vast expanse of space and time. Just know that it would have been kinder to have let me burn along with the rest of my people. At least then my death wouldn’t have been a long and lonely affair.

  
Alas, I didn’t die. No, I ended up in the Phantom Zone. The Phantom Zone, for those of you who have never heard of it, is a feared and infamous part of the universe. It is the size of many galaxies and it expands every time a new solar system has the misfortune to be swallowed up in its void. The Phantom Zone is a place where space and time does not exist. I do not remember everything clearly – my entire stay there has become somewhat blurry within my mind after so many years - but I what I do remember is the cold. I had never before and I have never again experienced something quite as cold as the Phantom Zone, and I have experienced cold that sits in your bones and stops your body from working. I have experienced cold that feels like death. The Phantom Zone was much colder than that. While it doesn’t freeze your body, it freezes your soul. The soul is the only part of the person that should never be frozen over for it belongs and will return to Rao, the God of our Red Sun. So, try to imagine the pain of a freezing soul, of someone’s essence is dying. Don’t worry if you can’t imagine it. I envy all who can’t.

  
24 years I spent there. Alone, cold, on the verge of death if only my body would have allowed it. I slept most of the time. And when I was dreadfully awake, I remembered my family and my culture. And I wept and hurt, but I refused to let their memories fade. They deserved to be remembered and my culture deserved to be kept alive, even if only through me. Even if I would forever be stuck here on my own, I would at least honor Krypton and the house of El until the end of time, and beyond.

  
Somewhere in my 25th year – there was no such thing as time in the Phantom Zone, which makes it harder for me now to truly know how much of my life I spent in there - something hit my ship from behind, changing the direction of my ship by a few degrees. I didn’t think any of it. It had happened many times before in the past and nothing came of it. I was mostly disappointed it didn’t rupture the protective outer layer of my ship. At that time I just desperately wished for death to take me.

  
However, a couple of – what I presume – days later I noticed my surroundings changing. For those of you who don’t understand the importance of that, just imagine being in complete darkness for years on end, and suddenly you see little pinpricks of light in the distance. The lights are small and don’t break the shadows nearby, but still, they have broken through the absolute dark. Seeing those small, seemingly inconsequential lights was the first in a quarter of a century that I felt hope. And as days passed and the lights grew in size and numbers, my hope also grew. After a week had passed after first seeing the stars, I felt the temperature change. No longer was I held captive by the cold. I could feel the warmth of the stars warring with the icy tendrils of the Phantom Zone. I could feel the Phantom Zone losing its hold on me, and nine days after first light my pod broke through the void and into the living universe. I sobbed in relief. I cried harder and longer than in the aftermath of Krypton’s death. This time I didn’t mourn for the dead, but I rejoiced the future now that I had known a fate worse than death.

  
I, fortunately, hadn’t wasted my years in the Phantom Zone. To keep me busy I had started to fix the steering panel of my pod. I had have never imagined that I would ever use it again when I worked on it – the motors don’t work in that kind of cold and were thus useless as long as I remained in the Phantom Zone – but I’ll be forever grateful I did. It took me two weeks to enter Earth’s solar system and only two days longer to reach Earth itself.

It wasn’t a soft landing. I would have died if not for the Yellow Sun, which grants me unimaginable powers. I climbed out of the broken pieces of my home and prison of the last 24 years and stood on the earth’s surface. I turned my face skywards, eyes closed, and basked in the sunlight.

  
I finally felt warm again.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara meets Kal-El

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, here's a new chapter for you to -hopefully- enjoy. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or a kudo. Constructive feedback is always appreciated!
> 
> P.s. Forgive me if there are any spelling and/or grammar mistakes. I just finished writing this, I'm too tired to proofread it, and I didn't want to wait for tomorrow to upload this chapter :)

I, unfortunately, couldn’t relish in the sun’s gentle light for too long. A deafening roaring disrupted the peaceful silence. I slammed my hands over my ears, trying to protect them from the violent noise. I looked around, desperately trying to find the source of the ear shattering rumble. At first I could see only the remains of my pod lying in a completely white landscape. Then, after I blinked against the sharp sting of the sun’s light reflected into my eyes, I saw everything. I could see every single molecule and atom that made up this world. I could see through the white blanket of the earth and see the soil and rocks and magma below. I could feel the heat permeate from the planet’s core into my own skin, a stark contrast to the coldness of the snow. I stared in wonder as I observed the inner workings of a living planet, its life source, and I wondered how Krypton would have looked like when it was much younger and healthy, how it had looked like in those final days.

A thunderous thumping woke me from my reverie. It was different from the previous noise, which was still clearly present, but less insisting and sounding farther away somehow, despite the volume. No, this sound came from within and surrounded me. It was all encompassing and now that I focused on it, I felt my body reacting to the beating rhythm, sending earth shattering shocks throughout my entire body. I think I would have described it back then as the pain one feels when dying, but I have become intimately familiar with that feeling since then and there really is no comparison. I do not know how to accurately describe the sensation, but know that at the time it was the most excruciating pain I had ever felt. My entire body throbbed in agony as I was made aware of every single movement of my body, from the big motions -such as the pumping of my heart and the emptying of my lungs- to the smallest sensations -the duplication of cells and all its phases.

When I could finally find the strength to open my eyes again and see if my body was breaking down and falling apart as I thought it was, I could only stare in horror as I saw not my hands, but only their skeletal remains. I screamed in despair. How unfair of Rao to torture me with the loss of a planet and almost a quarter of a century of isolation in the deep, dark cold and then, when I finally believe to have found a second chance at life on a living planet, to destroy my body. So, yes, I screamed and screamed. It was an animalistic sound fueled by the deep despair and rage I felt over my fate.

By unleashing all those pent up emotions, I ended up destroying the land surrounding me. It wasn’t on purpose, mind you. I didn’t know the extend to my powers yet, didn’t even know I had them. I desperately tried to cover my eyes, in the hope it would somehow stop the destruction that sprouted from them. When it continued relentlessly, I cried for the first time in years not out of sadness, but because of fear. I did not understand what was happening to me; I knew I was dying, I knew I was a monster. I just did not know why I was all those things.

When I finally calmed down, I realized I didn’t feel the intensity of my surroundings as much as before. I could still feel everything happening inside of me, but it was less overwhelming. I took a few deep breaths, felt how every individual atom was connected in some way to the others to form the air that filled my lungs. I could feel my lungs expanding and shrinking, I could feel how my alveoli traded oxygen for carbon monoxide. I could feel everything and I made peace with it. Finally, my eyes cooled down and returned to their original blue color.

I looked around at the damage I had done to the previously pristine landscape. Ugly scars marred the scene, angry smoldering lines of devastation. Not only had I evaporated the snow, I had also ruined all the life that lay below. I didn’t have any time to feel any remorse over the destruction, though. The roaring sounds that had started all this were getting closer and closer. I could finally pinpoint where they originated from. I turned around and faced the seemingly never ending fields of white. While I couldn’t see them, I could hear them clear as day. I squinted my eyes, not helped by the glaring sunlight, and focused my entire mind on seeing what lay beyond the usual sight. I knew I could -I had accidently done it not even minutes before- I just didn’t know exactly how. I stared until I felt a slightly burning sensation behind my eyes. I blinked furiously, but when the burning persisted I closed my eyes in fear of activating that same destructive force as before. I took a calming breath and cleared my mind. When I opened them again, I gently coaxed my eyes to see past the normal physical limitations. I gasped in surprise when the world turned into a color I had never seen before.

As most of you are well aware it is incredibly difficult to describe a color to someone who hasn’t ever seen it for themselves. I will try to give you the best description I can, but forgive me if I fall a little short. The color that lies beyond what your mortal eyes can see, is darker than the deepest black, but not in the way black gets its color. While black is just the manifestation of the absence of light and white the presence of it, this color manifests itself as the absence, but also the presence, of light _and_ dark. It is black in the way that it strengthens all the other colors. It is the darkness between the minuscule space between protons and their electrons. It is the dark that is the most prominent color in the universe, interrupted by atoms that join together in bands of energy that radiate light. It is the color of the in-between.

And as I gazed into the in-between, I could look as far as the edge of the ever expanding universe. I could see everything and everyone between here and there. Most importantly, I could see two vehicles rapidly approaching me just beyond a snowy hill. I could see the beings inside the vehicles and my heart leaped in joy. They were the first living creatures I had seen in 24 years. As I took a closer look at them, I felt my heart clench painfully at the similarities between these creatures and Kryptonians. They were virtually identical and for a moment I believed I had woken up from a bad dream and that my people were still alive and well. But the cruelty of their voices and the violence in their shouting as they neared my pod disrupted that fantasy. I tried to placate the angry men when they swung their weaponry in my direction from the relative safety of their vehicles, but they wouldn’t listen. Of course, they didn’t understand what I was saying and neither did I them, causing the situation to rapidly escalate.

In my frustration I accidently fired the burning fire from my eyes once again. Fortunately, I hadn’t been looking in the direction of the men. I had felt it coming and I had turned away at the last possible minute. Nevertheless, the men saw it as a direct and deliberate attack and started firing their weapons on me. I must tell you, I was awfully familiar with these kinds of weapons. I had assembled and dismantled many weapons with my aunt Astra and she had also taught me how to use them. So, yes, I knew what they were -guns- and I knew of their terrible capacity for death. What I didn’t know back then is my invulnerability to them, so as they fired their weapons I tried to hide behind my pod. Although I was fast -impossibly fast- there were too many bullets to evade and I got hit by at least half a dozen of them. They didn’t hurt at all. I could feel them, but they didn’t hurt. They felt the same as a gentle summer breeze would feel to your skin, as a soft and gentle caress. So unlike their true purpose.

I looked down in amazement as my skin, that should have been pierced and bleeding and dying, remained unblemished. I heard the men gasp loudly as I stepped away from my pod and back in front of them. Their jaws hung open, their eyes incredulous as they stared at me in wonder, in awe, in fear. I smiled back at them, a humorless smile. They had tried to kill me, an innocent girl. Even though the men were perhaps afraid of the unknown girl who had fallen from space, it didn’t give them a reason to try to kill me. Not after everything I had gone through. I deserved to be left alone in peace. I deserved to finally live. And these men were about to take that away from me, simply because they taught they could. Unacceptable.

In hindsight, I think the only reason I reacted this way was because I was still reeling from the painful sensory overload and emotional distress I had suffered only moments prior. Maybe I would have handled it better if they didn’t look so much like my people that I felt betrayed that they dared shoot at me. Perhaps I would have killed them had it not been for Kal-El intervening right at that moment.

Of course I didn’t know Superman was Kal-El at the time. I had only known Kal-El as a baby and though I vaguely knew that Kal-El would no longer be just a little baby boy once I arrived on Earth, 24 years late, I did not expect this full grown man to be my baby cousin. Therefore, I find my indignation at this strange man wearing the symbol of the House of El - my family crest- on his chest as if to mock me, a reasonable reaction. No one besides my family was allowed to wear the proud and noble emblem. To do so would not only be considered inappropriate and distasteful, but also an outright sign of disrespect. I thought it was therefore completely acceptable to take offence to his presence.

Suffice to say, our meeting wasn’t particularly pleasant. When the red and blue wearing man fell from the sky almost faster than even I could see, I was already quite upset by the insufferable men. Superman stopping me didn’t do anything to quell my frustration. Add to that, Superman wearing the sacred crest of El, and him trying to communicate with me in is broken and insulting Kryptonian accent, and you have an epic battle between the two Supers.

The fight didn’t last long. Well, it lasted longer than it should have for Superman had refused to fight back, desperate in his attempts to placate me -his possibly only connection to his world he had never been allowed to know. I am ashamed to say he didn’t manage to get through to me. I was too far gone in my own grief and anger and pain for his words to make any sense to me. He couldn’t have been Kal-El and him pretending that he was, was tearing away at my heart. How dare this man pretend to be Kal-El, the last of my family! Eventually, though, Superman gave up his attempts to peacefully resolve the situation. The moment he started fighting back, I knew I had lost. Before, I had used my new found strength and flight to throw the man around without so much as breaking a sweat, but now I was on the receiving end of the devastating prowess of a fully yellow-sun-fueled Kryptonian. I lasted no more than four minutes after he started fighting back. In my defense, I had just spent 24 years sitting in a cramped room and only had been touched by the Yellow Sun for 3 days, while Kal-El had spent almost his entire life soaking up the sun’s warmth and strengthening his body beyond any human’s comprehension. I shall therefore not be ashamed. Especially not when I have already proofed myself Kal-El’s better many a times since then.

Kal-El had managed to pin me down long enough to explain to me who he was, how he came to be here and how he knew about Krypton and our family – his father had apparently stored libraries full of information about our home and family into Kal-El’s pod. At first I was reluctant to believe him, but when I looked into his blue eyes and saw the prominent jaw and strong nose framed by his sloppy black hair, I could only see my uncle staring back at me. I’m pretty sure I hurt Kal-El more by pulling him into a bone shattering hug than when I tried to actually hurt him. We both cried then, sitting on our knees in the shattered remains of the Siberian tundra, grasping onto each other as if our life depended on it. Mine did. Knowing I wasn’t going to be alone anymore was the only thing I needed to keep on living. I never wanted to be alone. No matter what, I refused to be alone again. After what seemed like hours, we finally let go of each other. The sun had already begun its decent across the sky.

“I need to show you something,” Kal-El said. He took my hand and pulled me up. I looked up in awe as he started to float and hover above the ground. During the fight I had seen him flying of course -I had even flown myself- but I hadn’t taken the time to marvel at the amazing sight of such a careless display of defying gravity. Remember, I had never seen birds at this point in my life. The only things I had ever known to break free from the restrictions of the ground were the spaceships, and those needed a tremendous amount of energy to do so. To see Kal-El, my baby cousin, do the same thing without so much as a thought now was almost incomprehensible to me. So, imagine the elation I felt when I, too, took flight and finally focused on the feeling of being airborne.

The weightlessness of flying was such a stark contrast to the crushing weight of all my pain and loss I had carried in my heart for most of my life. I felt like I might become happy as long as I would fly. That I could fly away and leave all my sorrow behind, somewhere on the ground below. So I flew, I flew up and up and up. However, as I floated on the edge of the atmosphere, Superman by my side, my heart was gripped with an intense fear of the emptiness that lay just beyond the Earth’s protective layer.

“What’s wrong, Kara?” Kal-El had asked me, concerned. I had seemingly random gone from ecstatic to terrified. Instead of replying to his question I rushed back to the Earth’s surface and firmly planted my feet on the ground, this time there was no snow in sight. Instead I was faced with the all too familiar sight of a dessert. I fell to my knees and grabbed handfuls of sand, letting the grains sip between my fingers in a cascade of warmth. I bent over until my forehead touched the warm sand. I took panicky breaths and tried to desperately get my breathing back under control. I was vaguely aware of Kal-El landing next to me, but I didn’t acknowledge his presence. I instead buried my face further into the sand, not wanting him to see me cry, see me be weak and broken because the sight of space reminds me of the intense cold of the Phantom Zone. That the vastness of the universe frightens me to death because loneliness is my biggest fear. That I can see where Krypton should have been, but now only a cemetery and the shattered hopes and dreams of a lost world remains. I couldn’t tell him how the space reminds me of death.

Kal-El said nothing, somehow knowing silence would be the best course of action, but pulled me into another hug until I calmed down enough to tell him I was fine. He looked at me disbelievingly, but allowed me to put on a brave face and pull away from the embrace.

“I’m sorry. I’m just overwhelmed by everything that has happened,” I said to him in Kryptonian.

“That’s okay. I cannot imagine what you have gone through. It’s okay to cry,” Kal-El said seriously. Well, he actually said something more along the lines of _‘you good. I not see what you see. It’s okay you is sad,’_ but I will forgive him for butchering my beautiful language.

“You were going to show me something?” I asked him to change the subject. Kal-El stared at me for a few more moments, nodded his head and looked north.

“Yes. My Fortress of Solitude. It’s where I’ve stored every piece of information I could gather on Krypton. I also go there when I need a break from all the sounds and smells and sights. I think it is the perfect place for you right now.”

“Take me there.”


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting the Danvers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little shorter than the previous two, but I didn't want to let you guys wait any longer.
> 
> Please leave kudos and a comment, if you'd like. Also a question to you guys. Who do you want Kara to end up with romantically?

It took me one week to learn English. It was just as surprising to me as it is probably to you. I mean, I knew the Yellow Sun gave me unfathomable powers, but I hadn’t realized it would not just affect the body, but the mind as well. Of course, when you realize the mind is nothing more but an organ within the body it is less surprising. However, I had always felt my mind wouldn’t be able to get any better. Not that I am the smartest to ever exist. I just thought I had already reached my own personal physical restriction when it came to my brain. And perhaps I had under the reddish light of Rao. These restrictions seemed to be non-existent here on earth. My mind was now working faster than most species could keep up with. My mind was separated in eleven different layers, each of them thinking about entirely separate subjects without any confusion occurring. Each layer observing and processing a thousand things a second. Of all my new gifts I valued this one the most.

This is how I ended learning all the big languages on earth during my three month stay in the Fortress. I only learned English from Kal-El. With one human language under my belt, I had all I needed to learn the others on my own. Every time Kal-El left the Fortress as Superman, I would be left alone with nothing but access to all the information in the world; the internet. With the help of the internet I managed to learn Mandarin, Arabic, German, Spanish and Swahili. I also studies every Wikipedia article available in these languages that had anything to do with Earth’s history, sciences and cultures. I found the sciences to be rather dull, in my fair opinion. The theories, although differing slightly from the ones on Krypton because of the different mathematic rules used on both planets, were rather prehistoric compared to those I studied. All sciences except for biology, which was a subject closer to history than actual science on Krypton, since almost all living organisms had vanished from the planet. There was nothing to observe and no need to know. Biology was therefore not considered a science.

On Earth, though, biology was the most fascinating of all sciences. There were so many little and big creatures to discover, so many places yet unexplored that could house many more beautiful beings. I spent most of my free time browsing the web in search of animals, plants, fungi and bacteria. There was no life form that didn’t intrigue me. You might not be able to fully grasp my elation, but remember I came from a planet void of life and was violently thrust onto a planet that was so casually overflowed with it.

But that was only how I spent my free time when Superman was out. Whenever Kal-El returned to the Fortress he would ask me questions about Krypton and our family. Kal-El had waited his entire life to get answers on these questions, so I understand his curiosity. However, he was only interested in the superficial. He wanted to know how it was different from Earth, not about the things that made the planet so special. He did not seem to grasp the fact that Krypton was intrinsically beautiful, that it didn’t need to be compared with Earth to have any value. He only wanted to know how good his parents were. Not once had he asked about their flaws, about their troubles. He only cared about his parents as a concept. He did not care to know them as actual persons.

When I realized Kal-El did not and could not ever care about our lost planet – my lost planet – the same way I did, I felt incredibly lonely and I started resenting the conversations, rejoicing the moments Superman had to leave. I’m pretty sure Kal-El felt it too. He started talking less about Krypton and more about life on earth. He told me stories about his youth; how he had been found by the Kent family; how they took him in as a baby and raised him as their own; how he had had a fairly normal childhood until he hit puberty; how his powers slowly revealed themselves one by one; how he had to figure out by himself what was happening to him; how he found out he was an alien; how he became Superman and had to juggle his secret identity as Superman with his human persona, Clark Kent. Even though his stories hurt me because I had to hear how much I had missed out on, I was happy to hear Kal-El – Clark Kent, as he insists to be called – had a good childhood. A better one than I would have ever been able to give him as a stranded and scared seventeen year old alien girl.

Clark also mentioned how he had found a family that wanted to take me in and care for me.

“What do you mean? Am I not staying here?” I asked, confused.

“Of course you can’t stay here forever. This is no place for a young girl to live in. There isn’t even a kitchen in here! Besides, it’s too isolated here. You’d go mad. This is no place you can call home.”

“I’m not afraid of loneliness, Clark. It is people that scare me”, I said, thinking of my first encounter with people after 24 years of isolation. “I’d much rather stay here and learn more about this world.”

Clark gave me a sad, but stern look. “You have gone through something horrible and there’s nothing I can say or do that will make it better. However, I can promise you that things will be better from now on. You will have a place to live with a good and loving family. They will give you a place in this world, teach you all you’ll need to know. You could even go to college and get a job! You can have a life. But you can’t have that if you stay here all alone.”

I wanted to reject his idea entirely – I tried to – but Clark apparently doesn’t take no for an answer and that’s how I found myself waiting on the doorstep of the Danvers’s residence. We had previously bought clothes for me to wear in one of the many shopping centers in Metropolis, the city Clark lived in. I now had a suitcase filled with earth-appropriate outfits and a couple of stuffed animals that I absolutely adored. The giraffe, elephant and wolf were one of my favorite earth animals. I set my suitcase down as I turned around to Clark, who was still in his car. He gave a small wave as he started the car again and drove away. I still can’t help but think he was rather glad to be rid of me. The last week of my stay in the Fortress had been rather tense, after all.

I took a few deep breaths, ridding myself of any negative thoughts, before I focused my attention back on the front door of the house. I was too nervous to knock, so I searched the house for the residents with my x-ray vision. I saw two humans – a man and a woman - sitting in what I correctly presumed was the living room, and one smaller person – a female – in one of the upstairs bedrooms. The people in the living room were quietly talking together about their upcoming weekly date night, while the girl upstairs cursed under her breath because of the math homework she was doing. Looking at the formulas she used it was no wonder she was having trouble with it.

I blinked a few times in order to turn the x-ray vision of and settle back into my regular sight. The domesticity of the household simultaneously relaxed me as well as scared me. They seemed like a friendly and happy little family and I was pretty sure they wouldn’t hurt me even if they could, but I was also afraid that my presence would disrupt this family’s peace. Before I could talk myself out of it even more, I raised my hand and knocked carefully on the door. I heard some commotion from within; the excited voices of the man and woman, but no reaction from the girl; two pairs of footsteps – one heavy and one light – approaching the door; the intake of breath before the rattling of a doorknob turned and the scraping of the door as it moved inwards, revealing two smiling faces.

“You must be Kara!” the woman said warmly. “Mister Kent has told us a lot about you. Please come in.” The blonde woman waved me inside as she and her husband stepped back to make room for me to come in.

“Here, I can take it.” The man took my suitcase from me and guided me to the living room. “Please, take a seat. Make yourself comfortable.” He gestured towards the couch they had previously occupied. I awkwardly sat down and started fiddling with my hands - a nervous habit my mom would have reprimanded me for.

“So, Kara, welcome to our home. I am Eliza Danvers and this is my husband, Jeremiah Danvers,” Eliza introduced herself and her husband with a smile, while Jeremiah gave a little wave. “We want you to know, sweetie, that this place is your home now too and you should feel comfortable in it. If there’s anything at all that makes you uncomfortable, tell us and we will try to make things better, okay, sweetheart?” the blonde promised. I nodded my head. “We will give you time to settle and unpack your things before dinner is ready. You don’t have to eat with us yet, if you don’t feel up to it, but you are welcome to. Otherwise, you can eat in your room or on the porch, whichever you like most.”

An awkward silence settled over the room as I was at a loss for words. I finally decided on thanking them for their hospitality and apologizing for the inconvenience.

“Nonsense, we are all thrilled to have you here,” Jeremiah waved the apology away. “Alex has always wanted a sister. Speaking of… excuse me for one moment.” He stood up and walked to the bottom of the staircase. “Alex, get down here and meet Kara!” Jeremiah yelled. Kara saw the girl’s head turn away from her homework and her shoulders drop in a heavy sigh. The girl – Alex- looked clearly irritated by the interruption, if her frown was any indication. I felt my heartbeat quicken. I had already managed to upset my new adopted sister before even meeting her. I swallowed my fear of rejection down harshly as I saw her coming down the stairs and enter the living room. I quickly stood up and walked towards the brunette. I gave her a timid, but genuine smile as I held out my hand to her.

“Hi, I’m Kara Zor-El, you must be Alex Danvers. I hope we can be friends.”


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleeping arrangements

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long. University happened.

My heart sank as the girl just huffed, rolled her eyes and went back up the stairs to her room, leaving only awkwardness in her wake.

“So,” Eliza started, “that was Alex. Don’t take it too personal. You’ll find that teenage girls often behave strangely.” I knew all too well what teenage girls were like, I had just hoped it wasn’t a universal trait. Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any difference between the girls on Krypton and Earth; both species were bitches.

“It’s okay, Mrs. Danvers. I understand why your daughter wouldn’t be thrilled to suddenly have a stranger in her home.” I did understand, I truly did, even if the thought of being unwelcome filled me with dread.

“Oh, stop it with the formalities. Just call me Eliza, please. And don’t worry about Alex, I’ll talk to her.”

“Please don’t. I don’t want her to be forced to be nice to me. I have already forced my way into her home.” Eliza opened her mouth in protest, so I quickly added, “And yes, I know you have said I’m welcome to stay at your house, but it doesn’t mean Alex has welcomed me.” A few moments passed in silence as the Danvers shared some worried glances while I thought about the situation. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to either befriend or avoid her. Shouldn’t be too difficult,” I concluded.

“I sure do hope you girls can become friends. It sure would make my life easier!” Jeremiah laughed. “Come, Kara, I will show you to your room and we’ll get you settled in.” I nodded in agreement and stood up to follow Jeremiah, who grabbed my luggage and carried it up the stairs Alex had used. I already knew the entire schematics of the house, having scanned it thoroughly with my X-ray vision, something I did to settle my nerves. Knowing as much as possible about a new situation -whatever it may be: a scientific experiment, a social situations or just a building– stopped me from overthinking and stressing about messing up. It’s also not something I could help. The X-ray vision still sometimes activated itself without my permission, turning the world around me into an overwhelming display of interconnecting atoms. Even under the soothing touches of the Yellow Sun did I get a head ache from the sensory overload.

As I followed the brown haired man up the stairs I wondered which room would be appointed to me. As far as I knew the Danvers didn’t have a room to spare. I hoped I wouldn’t have to reside in the small storage room. I would not complain if that were the case, of course. Being grateful for a roof above my head and all that, but it would have most certainly sucked to be cramped up in such a small room and to have to share space with multiple appliances. What use those primitive machines had, I did not know. To my relief, and confusion too, Jeremiah Danvers passed the storage room and stopped in front of Alex’s room. He saw my hesitation and waved me forward with a small smile. The loud thumping and screaming from the girl’s awful music was heard through the thick door and attacked my sensitive ears. I was pretty sure that even humans found the music to be painfully loud.

“This will be your room. I’m afraid you’ll have to share the room with Alex, since we have no spare room and her room is big enough for the both of you, so…” He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, while avoiding looking me in the eye. The poor man clearly thought the idea of his daughter and me being roommates was a bad one -and I couldn’t agree more- but I was grateful for his hospitality anyway, especially since I had been forcibly kicked out of my home by my own cousin. Even if Kal-El meant it well, he basically forced me to be homeless. And then he left me at the doorstep of people I had never met before. People whose daughter already hated me being there. The more I thought of the situation, the more I resented Kal-El.

Jeremiah took a deep breath, bracing himself for the wrath of a teenage girl, and knocked hard on the door. There was no reaction from the dark haired girl. I could clearly see her heartbeat quickening in response to the knocking, but she refused to even acknowledge their presence and remained seated at her desk, bent over it and scribbling away at her math homework. She still hadn’t figured out what formula to use to correctly solve the problem. Jeremiah knocked again, before pushing the door open when, again, no reaction was forthcoming.

“Kara,” he said as he stepped into the room, “this is where you’ll be sleeping. Alex,” he addressed his daughter, who had looked up from her homework and was sporting an impressive frown as she scowled at her father, “be nice and show Kara her bed, will you”. With that said, Jeremiah fled the room.

The tension in the bedroom was as heavy as it was awkward. The younger girl was openly glaring at me, not bothering to hide her anger whatsoever. I started to fumble with my hands and play with the hem of my shirt under her intense gaze. “Uhm, so, where do I sleep?” I finally asked. I had to loudly repeat myself as Alex clearly hadn’t heard me due to the music. The girl -evil bitch was also fitting- simply pointed to the floor with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, that’s not happening.” I wasn’t going to let a little girl bully me. Not ever again. After all, I wasn’t on Krypton anymore and on Earth I had powers. This Alex girl should fear and respect me. She should tremble and beg for mercy and weep at my feet in thanks for me letting her exist in the same space as me.

“This is my fucking room and you either sleep on the fucking floor or you can fuck off.”

I slept on the floor for the rest of the week until Eliza found out.


End file.
